


So Easy

by amandaterasu



Category: World of Warcraft
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Break Up, Cheating, F/M, Reunions, Secret Relationship, World of Warcraft: Shadowlands Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2020-11-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 07:20:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27609599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amandaterasu/pseuds/amandaterasu
Summary: Lor'themar has been keeping his girlfriend a secret for years, and she is tired of it. Especially now that he seems very willing to pursue a relationship with Thalyssra.
Relationships: Background Lor'themar Theron/Thalyssra, Lor'themar Theron/Original Character(s)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 10





	So Easy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [saltedearthsch](https://archiveofourown.org/users/saltedearthsch/gifts).



> This fic was written for a good friend of mine who is new to World of Warcraft and fell head-over-heels for our favorite Regent Lord!
> 
> Bun, I hope you are enjoying the game and join us for lots of adventures in the Shadowlands!!

"We've got to stop meeting like this," Lor'themar groaned under his breath. "People will talk."

"Like they talk about you and that Ren'dorei?" Salrina hissed between her teeth as he pulled her close.

"Leave Thalyssra out of this." The Regent Lord growled as he pawed at the ties that held her robes in place.

"I'm not the one who came crawling into my bed in the middle of the night." As usual, her accusations cut like knives, but he had no defense against them. "You know where the door is if you want to leave." 

He didn't want to leave. That was the problem. That was _always_ the problem. It would not do for Lord Theron to be seen with a warlock, but every time he returned to Silvermoon he found an excuse to return to her bed, time and time again. "Can't we just have one last time without the vitriol?"

"I'm not the one you have to convince."

"I know, but…" He sighed. Everything was difficult, especially now that the First Arcanist had expressed her interest. She was a good match on a number of levels - intellectually, physically, politically; that was the very reason the rest of the Horde leadership encouraged their very public relationship. But no matter what Thalyssra did, she did not stir his passions the way the fel sorceress beneath his hands did. She had no allure of the forbidden, and she stood to gain _too_ much. He could never forget that forging a lasting bond with the Sin'dorei would be entirely to her people's benefit. 

"But what?" Salrina's arms snaked around his neck as Lor'themar dropped his head for one kiss, two, three. Why did this woman have to make it all seem so easy? She was just as good of a match physically and intellectually - and _far_ exceeded the Ren'dorei emotionally - but had few political connections. Even worse, as a warlock, there would be a number of _very_ loud objections. The Burning Legion may have been defeated, but that mattered little to many of the hard-liners in Silvermoon.

When he didn't answer, her lips vanished from his neck. "Spit it out, Lor." She only used the first syllable of his name like that when she was cross with him.

"I…" He sighed, and dropped his head to her chest. "I have a duty to my people."

"And?" Light, but he adored the way she made everything seem so uncomplicated. 

"And I cannot have anything real with you. You know that. This has to be the last time."

Salrina rolled her eyes and released him, letting herself fall back against her silken pillows as her hair formed a perfect mahogany halo around her head. "You've said that every time for the last five _years,_ love. Even before Suramar."

"It doesn't make it any less true." 

Lor'themar bent to kiss her but she turned away; he tried to pretend he didn't notice the tears clustering on her dark lashes. He did not expect her next words to cut him to the quick. "I'm tired of being toyed with." 

"I'm not toying with you," he argued, but she pulled away, fastening her robe again over her breasts. 

"Yes, you are. You want to have your perfect political partner and sneak into my rooms whenever her back is turned. It's not fair to me, and it's not fair to her." Salrina stood, folding her arms over her chest. "You can't have it both ways. Either you commit to us, or you stop making me think that maybe this time you'll acknowledge me."

"I can't," he said. "The Magisters -"

"I don't give a single solitary _fuck_ about the Magisters." She picked up her bag from the corner and began packing her possessions the way she did when she was leaving to go adventuring.

"That is more than obvious given your proclivities for the demonic," he groused. "Where are you going?"

"I'm leaving Silvermoon." 

"For how long?" 

"As long as it takes," she said drily. "Could be a year, could be a century. Who knows? Certainly not I." Salrina's hands grabbed books and scrolls, a few keepsakes from her childhood. A golden bracelet Liadrin had given her for her birthday a few years ago. 

It suddenly struck Lor'themar that he had never given her jewelry, and his mouth went dry. "As long as what takes?"

"For me to get over you. For you to marry the First Arcanist or someone else. For me to be able to spend a night in this city without wondering if you're going to creep into my bedroom under cover of darkness."

"Salrina, wait," he began, reaching out to grab her arm.

She pulled away from him. "I did. For five years." Then she walked out and left him alone in her apartment.

* * *

**Three months later**

_Knock._

_Draw._

_Loose._

Lor'themar clung to the battlements of Grommash Hold, trying to keep himself together. The Scourge were swarming into the city, a wave of undead crashing over the guards and those citizens who had refused the evacuation orders. 

_Knock._

_Draw._

_Loose._

He remembered the Scourge he had found as he had raced back toward Quel'thalas before the corruption of the Sunwell.

_Knock._

_Draw._

_Loose._

Had this been what the defenders faced that day? These hopeless numbers?

_Knock._

_Draw._

_Loose._

Every arrow found a ghoul, but it was like spitting into a rainstorm - it did nothing to calm the coming deluge; he could make himself do nothing else. Every time he tried his thoughts spiralled out of control.

_Knock._

_Draw._

_Loose._

Rommath came to his side. "She's not coming," he said quietly, before setting his jaw in a grim scowl.

"Salrina?" Lor'themar asked.

"Who?" He felt the magister's eyes on him.

_Knock._

_Draw._

_Loose._

That shot did not find a mark, instead sinking into one of the wooden columns of the bank below.

"I meant Thalyssra," the other Sin'dorei clarified. "She said she must look after her own people right now."

"Aah."

_Knock._

_Draw -_

"Come away, Lor'themar," he said. "The only thing you're accomplishing is emptying your quiver."

"The civilians -"

"You can't save everyone. Come on, the others are inside and we need to formulate a plan." Rommath's expression slowly curdled as he spoke, and despite urging him to go in, the Grand Magister moved to the railing at Lor'themar's side. "That stench."

"What?" 

He sniffed once, but only caught the scent of something foreboding on the breeze before his companion pulled his staff from his back. "Fel Magic," was the only explanation he gave. 

Sure enough, a torrent of sickly green fire rolled from the gates of Orgrimmar, down into the Valley of Strength and rendered the Scourge it encountered to ash. On its heels came a handful of imps, and behind them, a Sin'dorei woman with chocolate-brown hair.

Lor'themar's breath caught in his throat, and without a word he turned, rushing down the stairs to the great doors of the hold.

"Wait!" Rommath said, following after. "Who - _Light, Lor'themar!"_ He skidded to a stop beside the Lord Regent, who was already lifting the bar on the doors to the hold. "We can't open up, the Scourge will -"

"We have to make sure the way is clear for the civilians." He said between gritted teeth. "She'll get them to the doors, if we can keep them open." 

The other man huffed but added his strength, and together they let the bar fall to one side and pulled open the doors. 

Ghouls swarmed forward, but Rommath called forth arcane energies and blasted them back, again and again, bolt after bolt, while Lor'themar unleashed volley after volley of arrows on the space before them. Slowly, the mindless undead thinned, until the citizens Salrina had cleared a path for began rushing through the doors, into Grommash Hold. 

She backed in at the last, her eyes still fixed on the enemy. Words in the Fel tongue flowed past her lips and sent a shiver down the Ranger Lord's spine that only increased when demonic energies swirled into the space before her, filling it with a demonic tyrant. The creature gave no sign that it had even noticed the summoning, just trudged forward, killing the ghouls and giving them the opportunity to push the doors shut.

As soon as the bar was back across the entryway, she collapsed against it, trying to catch her breath, but Lor'themar was too pleased to see her to give her the opportunity. Greedily, he pulled her close, kissing her with wild abandon and the kind of passion that only three months' absence and a relentless army of the Scourge could inspire.

To his delight, she did not fight him; her arms looped around his neck and fingers twisted in his hair and Lor'themar was content to let the whole world fall away for a few moments. At least until a sudden sharp cough reminded him they were not alone, and they broke the kiss to find Rommath waiting with his arms crossed.

"While your personal life is not my business," the Grand Magister started, already scowling. "Thalyssra -"

"- didn't come." Lor'themar interjected, and put a protective arm around the woman beside him. She had always made it so easy. _"She_ did."

Rommath sighed, and gave the warlock a respectful half-bow. "Salrina, I take it?"

"I -" she blinked, then bowed with the same formality he had offered. "Yes. How did you know?"

"Our Regent Lord was thinking of you, up on the battlements." The other man's eyes slid toward him. "I wonder if that's why he's been lingering up there these past weeks, staring at the gates as if he was waiting for something." Her cheeks colored instantly, and Rommath laughed. "I don't have to like it, but if you can get him to relax occasionally then I have more important concerns."

Salrina's cheeks flushed red, and her "yes" was half-squeak and half-mumble. 

Smirking, the magister glanced at Lor'themar. "We do have to make a plan, but you are welcome to bring your…" He let the pause hang in the air pointedly before he continued. "Well, the lady is welcome to join us. You'll just have to figure out how you plan to introduce her." His point apparently made, Rommath turned away and headed back up the stairs into the hold proper.

"I'm sorry," she said abruptly. "I didn't mean to embarrass you."

"You didn't," he murmured, brushing soot off her face with the pad of his thumb. He was just glad to see her again, to touch her after so long an absence.

"You don't have to lie to me. I know you wanted to keep what we were -"

"What we _are."_ he corrected, but she plowed ahead anyway.

"- a secret. I'm sure I've mucked things up at least with your friend, and this -"

Lor'themar caught her chin in his hand and lifted it, kissing her again. "This is what I want, and unless you have an objection, we're about to walk into a very important meeting of the members of the Horde's leadership who could be bothered to attend, and I'm going to make the fact that I have chosen _this -"_ He squeezed her tightly against his chest. "- very obvious."

Salrina tried to scowl, but couldn't keep the smile from her face. "I don't know how you can do it," she complained.

He ghosted a kiss along her cheekbone. "Do what?"

"Being so self-assured. You just decided abruptly that we're going public, after years of dithering, and you act like it's nothing. I don't know how you can make it seem so easy."

Lor'themar nearly choked on his laughter.

**Author's Note:**

> If you like my writing check out my fanfic twitter: [@amandaterasu](https://www.twitter.com/amandaterasu)!


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